C9 Reapered: “Everyone [is a test for us in Bo5], because we are not [the reigning] champion”

HotSpawn sat down with long-time Cloud9 Head Coach Bok “Reapered” Hyan-yu to chat about the team, C9’s new coach, and his favourite League of Legends lore tidbits.

Cloud9 have their work cut out for them in LTA North this split, with 100 Thieves, Team Liquid, and FlyQuest all above them in most fans’ evaluations. The once-titans are being pushed further and further from their once-perpetually Top 2 status. It’s a brave new world in the LTA, but Reapered outlasts even region names. The (now long ago) SKT-alum is essentially synomous with Cloud9’s North American League of Legends projects by now. After Week 2 of LTA, we sat down with Reapered to chat about everything from Sylas’ lore to unifying solo queue and pro play.

Reapered on C9’s start to the split and working with Inero

Nick: Hey Repeared, thanks for taking the time. We’ll start off with your most recently finished week of play, how are you feeling about the games, where are you at?

Reapered: I mean, this week, we were like kind of showing our strengths and also like the prep went great and game-wise we should definitely have some, in the game [we struggled] against enemy team, like team comp wise, but we did a great job at like solving that like timeline early game. That was great so I think everyone understood how we play our team comps and how to play against their team comp, those kind of things. So, yeah in general it was still great and good to see our players are performing.

Nick: I had a conversation with Inero and we talked about the off-season and the process of him being onboarded to Cloud9. I’m just interested to hear, from your perspective, what the process of picking up Inero during the off-season was.

He’d mentioned that he’d actually reached out to Cloud9 at the start of last year and there weren’t plans for new coaches until 2025, so when this offseason came around, how did Inero joining come around?

Reapered: [We had] heard about lots of good things about Nick um and also [had people] who had worked with Nick, at Dignitas I believe [Author’s Note: Inero didn’t work at DIG, Reapered just misremembered the team], so he was recommended and then we were talking with a bunch of the other people and everyone saying something good things about Nick, so, yeah, why not?

Nick: I haven’t had the chance to pick your mind on the changes since the start of the year.

There have been a lot of systemic changes, Atakhan, Lane Swap changes, and we’re getting more in Season 2 of 2025. How do you feel about where the meta has landed right now?

Reapered: I mean, the meta is pretty straightforward even though lane swap is gone, um, people are still doing lanes up after early game. Like, for the Grubs swap, because Grubs is this really powerful objective for early game, and rest of game as well, especially, like when price plates are not removed. It’s gonna be it’s gonna be meta for a bit, that’s how we play, that’s how, like, worldwide, everyone, plays like that because the Grubs are too important. Also, the game itself..

I still think Riot Games is trying to, uh, revolve their systems right now because I understand that the game that pros were playing before, like, level one lane swap and then finding champions that are good at lane swap and everything is about the lane swap kind of things are kind of different than like normal people playing League of Legends, right? So they want to similarize those kinds of gameplay, so that fans can be more not confused and more engaged in the gameplay. Which is… I like it but the way that they changed it is kind of forced so … but in a way I believe that it’s kinda necessary as well, because the game is too different between solo queue or normal game to pro play. So, I think it’s kind of even if they’re only playing the game it’s like [the same gameplay, which is what the change] was all about.

I believe that it’s a process that Riot Games are still trying to improve those areas so that everyone will like it, yeah.

Nick: Alright, next question has absolutely nothing to do with pro play.

Riot is doing themed seasons, we’re finishing up the Noxus season, and we’re headed to Ionia next. If you got to choose where we spent a season, what region would you want?

Reapered: Piltover or Arcane.

Nick: Sure, sure, so go back to Piltover, get a full Piltover Summoner’s Rift and event?

Reapered: Well, I mean, Piltover is pretty cool. Ionia is also pretty cool. We already have Void, and we have Noxus right now, right? So what was the…Where are Garen and Lux?

Nick: They’re from Demacia.

Reapered: Oh, Demacia, yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m excited for waiting, like, Demacia. That’s going to be, like, the biggest one, right?

Reapered wants a Fortiche Demacia Show

Nick: Yeah, I think it’s the most obvious one. Demacia has a lot going on right now. Since we’re on the topic, I like to ask pro players and coaches what region or character they’d want an Arcane-style show about?

Reapered:  Sylas is going to be a very interesting one, I would say.

For sure, do you know much about Sylas’ lore, or do you just like the champion?

Reapered:  He’s, like, he has chains…he came from jail or something like that? I don’t know the full background story, but I kind of know. But, like, it’s going to be, like, interesting story for sure. And then Yasuo and Yone, obviously, right?

Nick: Yeah, the Yasuo and Yone cinematic is fantastic. I love that video. Anybody else you might want to see?

Reapered: I don’t know if there’s a [plan for] Jhin. It’s going to be a good one as well.

Nick: Oh yeah, I haven’t actually heard Jhin come up before, I don’t think. But I’d absolutely love to see Jhin in an Ionia season, good shout.

Alright, last question before we wrap up here, Reapered.

Spawn has said that until they beat FlyQuest in Bo5, they don’t consider themselves the best team. Since we’re moving towards multi-game series, is there any particular team you view as a test for this roster?

Reapered: Oh, I mean, to be honest, it’s kind of everyone, because we are not [the reigning] champion or we are not like standing on the top yet, right? So, um, it’s kind of testing and challenging. It’s challenging for everyone to standing up over there and then faced against the opponents that they used to beat us. So, I would say everyone and also, like, historically, um, C9 can lose against, like, bottom teams as well. So, we are just focused on this split, like, trying to beat everyone in front of us so that we are actually proving ourselves, that we are on the top.

Awesome, thanks for your time, Reapered. Have a good one, cheers!

Cheers! Thank you.